The University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Clinical Research Center (CRC) is now in its 16th year of operation and in the third year of an approved five year continuation grant which was activated in 1976 for six inpatient beds. The Clinical Research Center is a model unit where qualified investigators in a large variety of disciplines may bring clinical investigative projects once they have been approved by the Patient Participation Committee and the Scienfific Advisory Committee of the Clinical Research Center. Here under the watchful supervision of a highly trained staff of nurses, working closely with laboratory personnel, a model unit of clinical investigations has been established. This center provides investigators with an ideal environment to pursue promising new therapeutic approaches to disease, and to establish the feasibility of innovative diagnostic techniques. Of added importance is the teaching mission of the CRC, where advanced medical education in various subspecialties of medical as well as allied health disciplines is available. Every year a substantial number of students and house officers are exposed, many for the first time, to carefully designed scientific studies involving human subjects. Toward the end of the 1978-1979 grant year, a two bed outpatient investigative facility including a small preparatory laboratory was opened, and it is anticipated that this will add further to the usefulness of the Center. In addition, during the coming year facilities for computerized online storage, retrieval and analysis of data generated in the Center is planned.